The German Catholic Church Between Doctrine and Self-Preservation

Abstract

Abstract This chapter starts out by scrutinizing the initially critical attitude of German Catholic bishops toward National Socialism, warning against “cultural teachings that are incompatible with Catholic doctrine” and prohibiting the participation of Catholics in the Nazi movement. Despite their criticisms, the German episcopate had not worked out a common policy toward Nazism, and warnings against National Socialism were often accompanied by professions of national solidarity and devotion to the Fatherland. While far more critical than their Protestant counterparts, Catholic bishops in 1933 (the vast majority of whom were in their sixties and seventies) had lived through Bismarck’s Kulturkampf and were careful to avoid maneuvering the Catholic Church into the role of a pariah once again. The attitude of bishops began to undergo a decisive alteration after the 5 March 1933 elections, when it became clear that the NSDAP had made significant inroads into the Catholic milieu and bishops saw themselves locked into competition with Protestant Churches to curry favor with the new regime. On 28 March, former warnings and reservations against Nazism were rescinded. Until the end of March, when Archbishop Adolf Bertram, the primus inter pares among German archbishops, sent a circular memo about the April boycott to the other archbishops inquiring whether the Church should intervene, Catholic bishops had managed to evade the issue of antisemitic violence. No intervention took place, since Bertram adopted the narrative of the government regarding the boycott. In extensive correspondence with members of the clergy, Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber of Munich repeatedly emphasized that Catholic protests would turn the fight against Jews into a fight against Catholics, and that Jews could help themselves. This would essentially remain the line followed by Catholic bishops in 1933. Thus, while a few courageous individual voices urged that the Catholic Church speak out, the episcopate remained silent.